Editor’s note: “Matters of faith” is a column that provides local religious leaders a place to write about how their respective faiths provide hope, courage and strength in these modern times.
What is it to live wisely? It seems to be the perennial topic of what to do and what to avoid.
As an avid listener of NPR and watcher of public television, there is a limitless amount of programming of how to live your life in a better manner. From Radio West on KUER, I learned to avoid all fruit juices and to eat the fruits instead, since our body metabolizes the sugars differently. God help you if you drink orange and apple juice in the morning. Sugar goes straight into your bloodstream raising your insulin levels. Eat the apple or the orange (as God intended), stay away from the juice!
From the Diane Rehm Show, also on KUER, I learned that fasting is not only a spiritual discipline; it also is a very healthy practice. Fasting more than 12 hours gives your liver a break so that it can more easily process fats in your body. Those who fast live much longer lives. There are always bits of information that help to change our lives, so that we may live a better way.
There are a number of books in the Old Testament that make up the wisdom that has been garnered over the centuries by the Jews. If we live well, we follow Lady Wisdom. If we do not follow God’s laws, we are following Lady Folly. “Wisdom instructs her children and admonishes those who seek her. He who loves her loves life; those who seek her out win her favor.” (Sirach 4:11-12)
Regarding friendship, the writer of Sirach advises against assuming that most people are worthy of trust and when one finds a person such a person is a great blessing. “A kind mouth multiplies friends, and gracious lips prompt friendly greetings. Let your acquaintances be many but one in a thousand your confidant … a faithful friend is a sturdy shelter; he who finds one finds a treasure. A faithful friend is beyond price, no sum can balance his worth.” (Sirach 6: 5-16)
The writer emphasizes that what we say to others will be held against us, so we should say little and when we find someone who will not blab our confidences we should prize that person.
Regarding companionship, the writer gives advice on finding a spouse and how this choice will affect the rest of your life for better or for worse. “It is better to dwell in a corner of the housetop than in a roomy house with a quarrelsome woman (or man).” (Proverbs 25: 24)
Or “It is better to dwell in the wilderness than with a quarrelsome and vexatious wife (or husband).” (Proverbs 21: 19) On the other hand, if one is a good spouse and finds someone else who is a good match, then there is happiness. “When one finds a worthy wife, her value is far beyond pearls. Her husband entrusting his heart to her has an unfailing prize.”(Proverbs 31:10-11)
The marital relationship can make life a great blessing or a great hell, so those who are considering marriage should do so with great trepidation, discernment, and fear for what could happen. If one chooses the wrong person or is not ready for this level of commitment, it will cause great suffering. As I have learned from my own life, it is much worse being around someone who is disagreeable than to feel a tinge of loneliness from time to time. Dogs and cats are usually always charming and are rarely a disagreeable companion.
A popular theme that is repeated over and over in the books of wisdom literature has to do with finding wise people and attaching yourself to them as a student. One is to listen much more than speak. “Frequent the company of the elders: whoever is wise, stay close to him … If you see a man of prudence, seek him out: let your feet wear away his doorstep!”(Sirach 6: 34-37) Saint Teresa of Avila was asked if she would prefer either a wise or a holy spiritual director. She responded a wise one.
The writer advises to be generous to the poor and to not be miserly with yourself. I trust the afterlife will be better than he describes. “Deprive not yourself of present good things; let no choice portion escape you. Will you not leave your riches to others, and your earnings to be divided by lot? Give, take and treat yourself well, for in the nether world there are no joys to seek.”(Sirach 14:14-16)
We are reminded that God hears the poor person’s prayer; therefore we must share what we have. “My son, rob not the poor man of his livelihood; force not the eyes of the needy to turn away. A hungry man grieve not, a needy man anger not; do not exasperate the downtrodden delay not to give to the needy … For if in bitterness of his should he curse you, his Creator will hear his prayer.” (Sirach 4: 1-6) One should use their possessions well to help those in need and to live a full and happy life.
I can’t resist adding this one, which speaks for itself. “With all your soul, fear God, revere his priests. With all your strength, love your Creator, forsake not his ministers. Honor God and respect the priest: give him his portion as you have been commanded…” (Sirach 7:29-31) Respect the priest, how simple and beautiful. I may put that one in my office.
Good juicy gossip is sometimes too difficult to resist but the writer tells us that we will not burst if we do not reveal what we come to know. We are advised to keep that news to ourselves. It does no good to spread the misfortune of others. “He who gloats over evil will meet with evil and he who repeats an evil report has no sense. Never repeat gossip and you will not be reviled … Let anything you hear die within you; be assured it will not make you burst. When a fool hears something, he is in labor, like a woman giving birth to a child. Like an arrow lodged in a man’s thigh is gossip in the breast of a fool.” (Sirach 19:6)
I know some of the big gossips in my parish and the great harm that they do to individuals, the community and ultimately to themselves. Additionally with Facebook, one can broadcast gossip with greater efficiency, efficacy and permanence. What one writes will live forever on the web and be available for all to see.
What these bits of wisdom teach me is not necessarily that I need to find people who possess these good traits; it is that I need to continue to strive to live that way myself and to make great effort to remove these fatal flaws from my character.
For all of us to live according to Lady Wisdom is the greatest challenge but also will bring the greatest rewards. We hopefully all have the experience of knowing someone who showed us how to live wisely. Their life was attractive to us in its goodness and simplicity. We move forward in the process of metanoia or conversion, so that we can become who God made us to be.
Rev. Dinsdale is the priest at St. Marguerite Catholic Church in Tooele.